Colin Gunton, The Barth Lectures, ed. by Paul Brazier (London: T & T Clark, 2007), 285pp. (with thanks to T & T Clark for a review copy)
Colin Gunton over many years lectured on Barth, giving undergraduates, and also many postgraduates, an introduction to the great 20th century theologian. Gunton held Barth's theology in high regard, although he would not have liked the description 'barthian' and became increasingly more critical of Barth's theology in his later life. This book was one in which Colin had long been planning and hoped to eventually complete in his retirement. Had Colin written his Barth book it would have probably been very different to the one Paul Brazier has edited for us.
The Barth Lectures are transcripts based on Gunton's version of the lectures between 1999-2001. What Brazier has given us is Gunton lecturing in the classroom and so we find in various chapters Gunton answering questions from those who we there. The book has the feel and the language of what we expect from a Gunton book, but it also retains the feel of Gunton the teacher. In addition to the questions, there are the passing remarks and the recommendations for this book or that theologian. This all makes the book a great read, although it also leaves us wondering how Colin would have shaped the lectures into a book. (I think there might have been a different order and some topics getting more treatment.)
The book demonstrates the amazing grasp that Gunton had of Barth's theology and also his ability to explain it to both the undergraduate (like myself who heard the lectures in 2001-02) for whom theology and especially Barth was still new, and the postgraduate who was looking to go deeper into Barth's theology. The book is about Barth's theology, beginning with the background, then moving on to the famous commentary on Romans, before looking at various parts of the Church Dogmatics.
The Barth Lectures are mostly an exposition of the great man and the critical engagement is made more in passing than in sustained reflection. A more critical look at Barth can be found in other places. However, Gunton's main criticism of Barth - not enough of a doctrine of the Spirit - comes across and the suspicion (in agreement with Jenson) that Barth would have struggled to write the proposed Church Dogmatics V.
If you've never read Barth, Gunton's book, alongside Webster's short introduction and Cambridge Companion, is a great place to start. If you've never read Gunton, The Barth Lectures are also a great place to start, because they show him engaging with the theologian that most shaped his theology. Alongside the lectures are two fantastic introductions by Christoph Schwoebel and Stephen Holmes, which give you a sense of Colin the theologian and Colin the lecturer. These introductions added to the tribute also by Christoph Schwoebel in The Person of Christ (eds. Rae and Holmes) and the introductions also by Stephen Holmes in Father, Son & Spirit (2003) and Theologian as Preacher (2007), continue to show us what a loss Colin is to theology, whose best work was perhaps still to come. The Barth Lectures show us why he is a theologian worth reading.
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